Blog & News

Andy Coxall

We are Proud to work with 9 of the top 20 UK Universities.

At a time when UK universities are balancing a wide range of priorities and challenges; it is heartening to see universities recognized for what they do best in the Complete University Guide 2019 across student satisfaction, research quality and intensity, graduate prospects, facilities and teaching. For us, working with nine of the top 20 universities in the Guide launched today, we are delighted to see universities with a commitment to developing their students as leaders with the skills, competencies and networks needed in the 21st century recognized so clearly. And overlaying that commitment is a focus on both local and global through connecting students with local businesses, government and NGOs to ensure impact at a city level and on ensuring that those traditionally underrepresented in outbound mobility benefit from international experience.

Universities such as UCL, UEA and Manchester remain committed to providing their students with immersive and transformative leadership development opportunities in London, Norwich and Manchester, connecting with organizations such as EY, Aviva, Santander, BBC and Manchester Airport. Beyond that on a global level, universities such as Exeter, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham and Bristol are sending their students, and especially Widening Participation students, on short term outbound mobility leadership programmes with us to cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Nairobi, New York, Hong Kong and Chicago. Here we connect them in with our partners such as University of Chicago and University of Hong Kong, enabling their students to develop their leadership in these global cities with local students but also the universities to connect with leading peer institutions the world over.

Others such as Lancaster are focusing on both local and global opportunities with us. We have been running leadership programmes for disabled students at Lancaster for many years and are now expanding that out to take their students on a short term outbound mobility leadership programme to Boston, where they will be joined by students from Boston University to go through a leadership programme rooted in the city.

While ranking launches inevitably bring a focus on who’s placed where, have they gone up or down, what does that say about the health of the sector today, we’d like to step back and focus on recognizing university’s commitment on developing their students with the skills, competencies and networks needed in the world of today and tomorrow and celebrate their role in developing the next generation of leaders.

Andy Coxall

Andy Coxall is Chief Executive of Common Purpose Student Experiences. Andy has an MA (Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. He has travelled extensively to more than 45 countries, and delivered courses in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean and the US.